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Secondary Crops and Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh

Jahangir Alam Khan
Member-Director of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Dhaka and former Director-General of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

This study was conducted in selected areas of Bangladesh to examine the possibilities of promoting diverse agriculture and agribusiness with secondary crops towards poverty alleviation. Of the coarse grains, pulses and tuber crops (CGPRT crops), maize, millet, lentil, mung bean, potato and sweet potato were covered. Results of the study show that these crops have substantial potential for crop diversification, processing, value addition and employment generation. These crops are economically profitable, fit well in the farming system and have comparative advantage in production. The study revealed that if the area under CGPRT crops was increased by 1 percent, the annual income of a household would be increased by 0.3 percent. The cost and revenue structure of various processing industries shows that the processing of CGPRT crop products is substantially profitable and contributes significantly to employment generation and poverty alleviation. However, farmers in large part have shown reluctance to diversify and produce more of these crops. The main reason is that rice is the staple food of the Bangladeshi people and with the expansion of irrigation facilities farmers find it more suitable to cultivate rice. Concomitantly, they increased the cultivation of wheat due to the availability of modern varieties. Consequently, the cultivation of minor cereals and pulses has received low attention by the farmers. As a result, the progress of crop sub-sector diversification has been very slow over the years. In order to enhance the speed of diversification, special programmes should be undertaken to encourage the production, processing and marketing of CGPRT crops in the country. Higher budgetary allocation is required to serve this purpose. Moreover, regional co-operation regarding the research and development of CGPRT crops and versatile uses of their products is required to promote diversification and enhance the sustainable development of agriculture to alleviate poverty in the region.

Keywords: Agriculture, Agribusiness, Secondary crops, Poverty alleviation

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Commodity: Double Cropping, Intercropping, Poverty

Objectives:

To examine the possibilities of promoting diverse agriculture and agribusiness with secondary crops towards poverty alleviation.

Methodology:

The interviewed farmers generally sell their produce at the farm gate or rural assembly markets at a relatively low price. Over 80 percent of major CGPRT crop products are marketed, while less than 20 percent are kept for home consumption and seeds (Table 6). Cheena and Kaon are grown on poor soil under harsh conditions and very poor farmers grow these crops primarily for consumption. Less than half of the produce of these crops is sold at the market. They preserve seeds from their own produce in a traditional way. In the case of maize, farmers predominantly use hybrid seeds, which they purchase from NGOs, where the most important is the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). Only some local seeds are set aside for future planting. Food processing is an important component of agribusiness in Bangladesh. Food processing involves the application of scientific principles to the preservation or modification of primary food products to standardize the products and make them more appealing as well as to ensure food safety. The large processors selected produce a wide variety of CGPRT crop based processed food with varying specifications and product characteristics. A detailed list of items includes ring chips (potato), ball chips (potato), curl chips (potato), potato crackers (potato), Chanachur (lentil, chick pea), Dal (mung bean, chickpea), Machmacha (lentil, chick pea) and Alubhujia (gram floor). The large-scale processors distribute their products through a developed and organized marketing network. An attempt was made to profile small-scale food processing activities based on CGPRT crops. The profile includes Chanachur (pulses and groundnut mix), Fuska (boiled potato and chick pea within a crispy ball), Fried/puffed corn, Chatpati (cooked potatoes and pulses), cake made of kaon/cheena, boiled sweet potato, French fries, Halim (spicy soup of pulses with mutton), Zilapi (coil shaped sweet) and fried potato slices. The marketing channel for CGPRT crop based products processed by small-scale processors is simple. In most cases, the owners of the small-scale processing plants sell their product directly to the end consumers. They purchase raw materials from different shops and after preparing/processing the light food items they sell their product directly to the consumer. Using Household Expenditure Survey data from 2000, the present study estimated income elasticity of demand for products originating from CGPRT crops. Overall income elasticity of demand for such products was less than 1, in some cases it was very low, and in one case it was even negative. The estimates of income elasticity of demand for pulses and tubers were 0.42 and 0.23 respectively and the estimate for maize, barley and millets together was 0.62. The elasticities were high for lentils and mung bean, 0.89 and 0.98 respectively, while only 0.04 for gram and -0.26 for lathyrus. The elasticities are quite low for cereals. With the achievement of self-sufficiency in rice production in recent years, the elasticities for rice and wheat have declined and are expected to decline further until 2010. Conversely, the elasticities of other cereals, such as maize and millets are likely to increase slightly due to developments in the livestock and food processing industries in the country. Projections for the year 2010 show that the required growth rate in production of maize and millets to meet domestic demand is estimated at 3.7 per cent, which is the highest among cereals. Recent growth for maize has been quite impressive, but very low for millets.

Source of Information: Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2004, UNESCAP, 2004

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

This study was conducted in some selected areas of Bangladesh to examine the possibilities of alleviating poverty by promoting diverse agriculture and agri-businesses with secondary crops. The crops under study included coarse grains (CG), namely maize, kaon (foxtail millet; criteria Italica) and cheena (proso millet; penicum miliceum L.); pulses (P), namely lentil and mung bean; and roots and tubers (RT), namely potato and sweet potato. Thus, seven CGPRT crops have substantial potential for poverty alleviation through crop sector diversification, agri-business promotion, employment creation, income generation and reducing malnutrition. These crops are profitable and have a comparative advantage in production. The demand for several CGPRT crops is expected to rise due to urbanization and increases in per capita income, and the scope of industrial uses of these crops is high in the country.

Knowledge Management: Journal